Book Review: The Distractions

 


Solitary tech worker Mischa Osborn is mourning the shelving of her passion project—an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of love—when a chance encounter with a social media celebrity leads her spiraling into an all-consuming obsession. Simultaneously, someone—or something—is watching.


Mischa Osborn spends her days as a ProWatcher—keeping distracted people on task and lonely ones accompanied—from her Brooklyn Megabuilding, while eating PetriMeat Steax and working out with her favorite personal trainer, a straight-talking algorithm named Tory.

Her carefully constructed, isolated existence is suddenly upended by a chance realspace encounter with a HighlightReel celebrity, Nicolás Adán Luchano. On their first date, hiking in Kuulsuits and watching DroneBeez pollinate flowers, Mischa experiences a brief but intense realspace connection.

Mischa takes to relentlessly watching Nic onReel. As Mischa’s ReelWatching spirals into an all-consuming obsession, and even realspace stalking, Mischa takes increasingly desperate measures to be seen and valued, sucking others into her vortex of obsession until she completely loses control.

Meanwhile, someone is equally obsessed with Mischa, tracking her every move and perhaps even influencing her choices.

A tale of how technology enables obsession, envy, and unrelenting comparison, told through an eccentric cast of interconnected characters, The Distractions invites us to reflect on who we are watching, and why.


My Review

This book is told in first and second person POVs. It is mainly told in second person POV. So, like Mischa, you feel more like an observer looking in as everyone else goes on about their daily lives. 

I did not form an emotional attachment to the characters. Which in this case for the concept of the story, I was fine with this and kind of felt like this was to be expected from the way the story was told in second person POV. 

The whole time I was reading this book, I could imagine it becoming the first with AI growing and all of social media apps like Instagram and Tik Tok. We as a society have already disassociated with in person interactions. We interact through apps. This includes watching other people's lives instead of enjoying our own lives or the moments that are happening. 

One day we could have a SomniBuddy like Mischa. A robot that breathes next to you to simulate the presence of another human being. It helps to calm your breathing and heart rate to allow for better sleep. How about a ReelDog, AI dog for those that don't want to own a dog but still want to hang out with one for a bit. 

The journey that Mischa took to figure out the enlightenment that was missing in her life is intriguing. This is definitely a book worth reading. 


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